In July this year it will be 40 years since the ultra popular video game Space Invaders first hit the arcades:
Arcade historians know that 1978 was a big year in arcade games and Taito knows it too since they released a game that year that put them on the map. Unfortunately Taito hasn’t done anything earth-shaking in the past few years but they will certainly be celebrating the 40th anniversary of Space Invaders throughout 2018. They’ve started by launching this special website commemorating the original; if you frequent modern arcades then you likely will have come across the new Space Invaders Frenzy by Raw Thrills.
For the record, the arcade version was released in July of 1978.
Any other Soylentils remember when this first arrived in the arcades?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by marcello_dl on Thursday January 04 2018, @05:44PM (3 children)
I remember taking a while wondering about the colors, then realizing the shoot switched to different colors because of the colored sheets on the screen.
Arcades were absolutely gorgeous in the first eighties, because old electro mechanical stuff was still there together with pinball and electronic cabinets.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 04 2018, @06:23PM
Then came Nintendo thumb.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 04 2018, @07:04PM (1 child)
The vector graphics of Asteroids and other games still has nothing comparable today, at least not without paying a fortune. The bright laser balls were mesmerizing because the electron gun of the video tube could fire electrons at a single spot for a long time compared to scanning raster video.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Thursday January 04 2018, @07:59PM
Sadly most people today can only experience these vector display games indirectly through emulation on modern raster based displays, which really does not do them justice.
I recall reading on some TRON trivia site someone claiming that there were no "3d" graphic games when the movie was made. This was a criticisms of the 3-d rendered "Space Paranoids" game at the beginning (where a game player shoots at a recognizer). When in fact, there were "3d" games, such as BattleZone. A vector-based version of "Space Paranoids" probably could have been done. The only real issue in the move was the apparent presence of surface rendering.